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"The new 256 GB model of the Surface Pro, will sell for 119,800 yen. In addtion, there also will be a 128 GB Surface Pro model introduced in Japan for 99,800 yen," reports Microsoft Japan press release.

Microsoft indeed has very optimistic plans for its Surface tablets for the fiscal year ending 2014. According to a new report, the Redmond company expects to sell "25 million Surface devices by July 2014."

The report further states, that Microsoft expects to become the leader in the tablet industry, and to this end, its projecting themselves to be the "number one enterprise tablet provider" and for retail sales, the company expects to be the "number two provider of tablets" all by the end of fiscal year 2014.

Microsoft is rumored to reveal the Surface 2.0 by next month, a smaller version of the current Surface tablet (perhaps with an 8-inch screen).

In addition, the company is also looking to increase advertising for its tablet devices, with advertisements that focus on "first party hardware to drive demand and highlight the family of devices and services from Microsoft." In this case, Microsoft is referring to its Surface tablet as the "first party hardware." Microsoft's projected budget for this is $4.4 billion.

Microsoft is also according to report looking at every bit of available opportunity for "educational tablet", while also expecting to become the top tablet choice of the software giant's distribution partners.

While nothing has been officially confirmed yet, Microsoft it seems has send a manager at its German office to Taiwan to purchase $24 million worth of tablets. However, the company quickly denied the reports, claiming that "the information is not correct at all, unfortunately. There must have been miscommunication or loss of translation," Thorsten Thomas, a partner account manager at Microsoft Germany, was quoted as saying by Focus Taiwan.

Additionally, Microsoft is working with partners around the world to expand the international availability of the Surface device, with the countries such as "Columbia, Poland, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, South Africa, India, and Malaysia" expected to start selling the tablets by fiscal year 2014.

Meanhwile, Microsoft has released another Surface television advert, this time comparing Apple's popular iPad with Windows RT operating system.

The video immediate below, compare the iPad with the Asus VivoTab RT. In the video, Microsoft shows off that the Windows RT tablet is thinner, lighter, and features Microsoft Office 2013, multitasking abilities via Snap mode, and built-in Micro SD card reader on the VivoTab RT.

Microsoft also points out that the Apple iPad requires a "special Apple printer" in order to print something, whereas the VivoTab RT can print almost anywhere.

Also, Microsoft recetly confirmed the public preview of Windows 8.1 coming in June at the //BUILD developer conference, has now released build 9403 to partners, for testing.

And, is believed that the software giant has already completed the development of some new built-in Metro apps, including the highly-anticipated Movie Moments.

Finally, a new Windows 8 End User Training Brochure is now available and is a really great guide for getting around and using Windows 8

"Windows has been reimagined to be all about you and your style of working. Put what matters most right on your Start screen, and get instant access to your people, apps, sites, and more, so you can spend less time searching and more time doing. No matter what you want to do, you can get it done quickly in Windows 8. Whether you're collaborating on a large project, preparing for an upcoming conference, or traveling for work, you can use touch, mouse, and keyboard together-seamlessly-to do what you want, the way you want. This brochure will show you how to get around, navigate, manage apps, and personalize in Windows 8," Microsoft stated.

Microsoft on its channel 9, has created a new "Windows Store Weekly" to help user keep up to date on latest Windows Store apps.

"Windows Store Weekly highlights 5 of the coolest apps in the Windows Store each week. In just 5 minutes you'll get to know what's new, what's hot and what you should be checking out in every app category out there."

Also, "Start button" apps for Windows 8 is an hot topic, Microsoft seems not quite pleased with the success of third-pay app recently send a developer to remove some icons along with the Windows logo that played the role of a Start button.

"Microsoft contacted us and asked to remove multiple icons from the included icons library that were too similar or almost identical to Microsoft application icons, like the icon for Internet Explorer and a few others. Although used by other software vendors, too, we have also removed the start button Windows logo images and created our own ones," developers explained in the release notes of their new app.

In other news, ending the tussle on the YouTube app for Windows Phone 8, Microsoft and Google have now reached an understanding and are both working together to create the new app.

"Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks," Google stated.

So what exactly does this mean for the YouTube app? Well, the newer app cetainly will not have the ability to download videos or skip ads.

Microsoft, who has recently rolled out a brand new YouTube app for Windows Phone 8 with the ability to skip ads and download videos, was issued a cease and desist letter by Google citing violation of its terms of use.

Microsoft responded to that letter stating that the software giant was "more than happy" to comply but Google needed to be more flexible with providing the necessary APIs. And, then it rolled out an update complying to most of Google's requests, but "not all of them."

Update 05/29: Microsoft has introduce "fingerprint login" support in Windows 8.1, a new screenshot revealing that the company is indeed working on fingerprint authentication for Windows 8.1.

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About The Author

Deepak Gupta is a IT & Web Consultant. He is the founder and CEO of diTii.com & DIT Technologies, where he’s engaged in providing Technology Consultancy, Design and Development of Desktop, Web and Mobile applications using various tools and softwares. Sign-up for the Email for daily updates. Google+ Profile.